On the Air, Off the Program : Radio Comes to Santa Clarita--but Without the Man Who Made It His Mission

Radio finally has come to the Santa Clarita Valley, but without the man whose mission in life was the founding of a station.

When KBET (1220 AM) made its much-delayed debut June 28, Larry Bloomfield was out looking for work. For years he had planned to be behind a microphone, handling the sign-on himself.

Depending on who does the talking, Bloomfield is either a hard-working electronics wizard whose dream was usurped by a shrewd businessman, or a loose cannon who cost the station precious time and money with his sloppiness and extravagance.

KBET is the only station in a fast-growing valley of about 147,000 where radio reception from the outside is notoriously bad. Bloomfield, 50, founded the station with the help of several investors, principally Scott Howard, an Encino tax consultant. Bloomfield had been his client. The two became partners in the venture about five years ago.

In April, Howard and the other investors fired Bloomfield from his positions as KBET’s president and chief engineer. In mid-June, Bloomfield’s attorney sent the investors a letter demanding an overdue payment on a $100,000 note that Bloomfield holds. June 22, the investors sued Bloomfield, charging that gross negligence on his part had delayed the station’s completion and run up costs.

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Bloomfield is a gregarious, outspoken man with a resemblance to William Conrad of TV’s “Jake and the Fatman.” A broadcast engineer, he says he has always wanted to build and own a radio station. He shows people a snapshot of himself in a front yard at age 8, wearing a telephone operator’s headset and broadcasting from a make-believe wooden microphone.

He has lived in Canyon Country 25 years and is a familiar figure in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he handled audio chores for numerous public meetings and often talked about plans for his station. He said he worked many 12- and 14-hour days on the project.

Being forced out of KBET, Bloomfield said, “is like watching my child take his very first step with someone else holding his hand.”

Howard, 39, refused to give examples of Bloomfield’s alleged negligence, except to say that he ran the cost of building the station from a projected $700,000 to more than $2 million.

Bloomfield insists he told Howard from the start that the cost would be $1.75 million. That amount is high for start-up of an AM station, industry sources say. Bloomfield contends that the money bought good-quality sound, which was vital.

“We’re on the edge of Los Angeles, which has the best-sounding radio in the country,” he said. “People can’t drive from there into the Santa Clarita Valley and listen to a signal that’s muddy. They won’t take it.”

KBET’s need for good sound was compounded by the fact that the station could not get a spot on the crowded FM dial. FM produces a better-quality signal than AM.

Bloomfield worked on the Navy’s first geosynchronous satellite and helped build TV studios for KCBS and the NBC network. He designed KBET as a tapeless, recordless studio. Music--the format is adult contemporary--comes from compact discs. The four CD players each hold 60 discs. Commercials are recorded digitally and stored on hard discs, as are news items. The station’s equipment is networked by a system that can be programmed like a computer.

The result is high-quality stereo sound and new possibilities in broadcasting. For example, the station will have a “radio jukebox” to let listeners with touch-tone phones punch in the numbers of songs they want to hear. The numbers will be published in a newspaper or in flyers.

KBET program director Mike Levine would not comment on Bloomfield’s dismissal. He did say, however, that the state-of-the-art equipment is a success.

“The programming we produce at the studio is about twice as good as what you hear on CD,” he said.

Howard said he expects the technology one day to be in every radio station.

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No details of Bloomfield’s alleged negligence are offered in the investors’ lawsuit, which asks for general damages of at least $150,000.

“The complaint probably will be amended in the next couple of weeks to be more specific in regard to the gross negligence,” said Lloyd S. Mann, an Encino attorney who represents Canyon Broadcasters, KBET’s parent corporation.

Mann said of Bloomfield: “Over a period of time, he was really outrageous in terms of the decisions he made, the people he hired, things he said about the station.”

One of those charges--that Bloomfield made poor hiring choices--appears difficult to back up. Program director Levine said that since Howard assumed the station’s helm as general manager, no employees have been let go.

Bloomfield retains a 35% interest in the station. His share had been 45%, but late last year he transferred 10% to other investors in exchange for a $100,000 note. Both sides said the note calls for monthly payments of $1,000 beginning May 15.

Although no payments have been made, Howard said, the note cannot be considered in default until the lawsuit is adjudicated. Bloomfield’s attorney, Joseph J. Sheehan of Los Angeles, disagrees.

“Our view is that the lawsuit is totally groundless,” he said. “It represents a feeble effort on their part based on the theory that the best defense is a good offense. It’s a preemptive attempt to forestall payment.”

Sheehan would not discuss Bloomfield’s next move, saying it is a matter of strategy.

Bloomfield said he was not to blame for the many roadblocks encountered by KBET. These included an action by a minority group against the Federal Communications Commission that stalled consideration of a license application; technical delays in showing that the signal of a Pomona station with frequency AM 1220 would not interfere with KBET’s, and work by Southern California Edison to ensure that its equipment near the transmitter would not disturb the station’s broadcasts.

KBET’s first announced air date was last November, and the station missed several others before finally debuting.

Howard owns 29% of KBET. The remaining 36% is owned by five investors that he recruited. He said the station cost far too much to build, and that the overruns were caused by Bloomfield’s errors, not inflation or unexpected problems.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that I put up all my money and mortgaged myself to the hilt, the radio station wouldn’t be on the air,” Howard said.

The company owes him $1.6 million in the form of a note much like Bloomfield’s, he said.

“Mine’s even better because it’s secured by the equipment,” he added.

Howard said the lawsuit will decide what is to become of Bloomfield’s 35% interest.

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Two men knowledgeable about the radio industry said $2 million is a high figure for construction of a station.

“If they actually have $2 million cash in it, on Day 1 it’s not worth that much, but it’s worth at least a million dollars,” said Peter Stromquist, managing director of Montreux Companies Ltd. of Beverly Hills, which brokers sales of radio stations.

He said land values--KBET paid $325,000 for its 17-acre transmitter site--may push the station’s worth closer to $2 million. And prospects are bright, he believes.

“Not only does it have a captive audience, they also have an audience for advertisers outside the market,” Stromquist said. “Malls, entertainment attractions and so on will find radio pretty attractive for advertising.”

Pat Clawson, Washington-based financial editor of Radio & Records magazine, said one strike against KBET is that 80/% of the national radio audience listens to FM.

“The chance that they would be able to get $2 million back would be 50-50,” he said, “the reason being that bankers and venture capitalists are not real thrilled about AM radio these days. . . . Indeed, I give these fellows a lot of credit. Financing a stand-alone AM station is one of the hardest things there is to do.”

Stand-alone means no FM sister station. Clawson said KBET’s signal--1,000 watts daytime and 500 watts at night--would be powerful enough to attract buyers.

Howard said KBET’s future “should be fabulous. That’s why I’ve hung in there the last five years to get this thing on the air.”

He points out that listeners will include commuters passing through from the Antelope Valley. Howard said he plans to move to the Santa Clarita Valley and use the station as a force for more roads, better schools and other community improvements.

Bloomfield said he is not through with radio, despite the dispute with Howard.

“I’ve thought of starting another station, and there are other radio properties I’ve looked at,” he said.

In the meantime he will be host of a midnight-to-6-a.m. talk show starting Monday on KWNK (AM 670) in Simi Valley.

“The only thing I won’t talk about is KBET,” he said.

Wyma is a regular contributor to Valley Calendar.